Family Issues
by Yaodai
Summary: Jack was sure he knew his family well enough. Then somebody hit him with a crowbar and world ceased to make sense at all.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**  
**Something has gone awry**

Emailing your enemies always was telling something about desperation. Jack Spicer at this very moment was completely desperate and hadn't any idea, other than just beg for help and hoping that Xiaolin monks decide to play heroes yet again. Otherwise he was screwed.

Completely, absolutely screwed, not the usual type of screwed.

That's why he was hiding in the bathroom, kneeling on the cold, pale tiles next to the toilet bowl, using his father phone to send message to Kimiko. His own stuff was taken away and it was too risky to try to take it back. He didn't even dared to actually call her, deciding that tapping a text message would be his best option. Because someone might hear him and that would lead to the whole new level of trouble.

Jack bit his lip and tried to concentrate on putting all the important stuff in the short mail, while eyeing doors. His hands were shaking terribly, no mention that breathing was actually pretty painful. Nothing was broken, for now, but they suggested pretty clear that it might change any given time. He wanted to curl in the tiny ball of misery and just cry, but it wouldn't lead to anything.

The worst thing about whole situation? There was no running away. Not an option this time, even if he was actually able to sneak out of the house. There were other things at stake here and no matter how scared he was, he just couldn't leave it all and act like nothing happened.

Evil by genius or not, Jack had that irritating thing called a soul. And was just about to start understanding why Chase Young decided to actually sell the blasted thing away.

xxx

The day started like they always did.  
Jack woke up after falling out of his chair on the cold, basement floor and then jumped up with high–pitched shriek, ready to run away from foes from his dreams. When he was sure that nobody else was in his evil lair, he sighed and relaxed a little.

He really should stop sleeping in the basement, Jack through with grimace on his face, massaging his shoulder. He was completely stiff from staying all night in strange position. On the other hand, last night he was too tired to actually care. He just finished another little fun project, that one he was so excited about for quite some time.

Jack sighed and started to moving around a little, to make the stiffness go away. During his few exercises, he started to reading through the calculation once again. Boy genius or not, math wasn't his greatest strength in the middle of night, when he was already half–asleep.

His stomach growled, but he didn't fell like going up there just now. Besides, he had a lot to do today. The monks managed to trash his Jackbots one again and somebody needed to put them together. Nobody could tell when new Wu decide to show up, and Jack without his inventions would be rather in big trouble. He really didn't want to lose to the monks because of his own laziness.

Deciding that it was as good as any day for repairs, he went through his food reserves; Jack always kept a lot of junk–food and granola bars just for occasion like that. Besides if he will be crawling for something else, he always could send first freshly repaired Jackbot to snatch it from the kitchen for him. So, no biggie.

He probably should take shower, but that one could wait too. There wasn't any sense in cleaning himself just now if he was about to get dirty from oil and other things that happened to be in his robots, on his robots and in places around.

Jack just chewed on the last part of his bar and started going through parts of destroyed Jackbots, trying to decide if he could salvage some parts or it or should he just threw whole thing away, when he heard sudden crash coming from the upstairs.

"What the…?" Jack blinked, looking at the ceiling. The noise was more than just strange.

Jack was used to being alone, hanging all days in his basement, while his parents showed up in the house from time to time, mostly to host some sort of boring party or just to try to act like normal family for a few hours. Mom usually spend her day in the kitchen, completely concentrated on her baking–spree. Something about feeding family sweets was making her fell less guilty about not being around for the rest of the time.  
Jack hadn't anything particular against the whole deal. He could do whatever he wanted all year around without anybody telling him what he was supposed to do or not. It was absolute freedom, thing that every teen was dreaming about. Not even school was standing between Jack and his shenanigans, since he was homeschooled – meaning as long as his exams were on the acceptable level, nobody really cared if he was learning anything at all.  
Not that he didn't. He just preferred the other stuff… no mention that all of the so called hard–sciences were just to frustrating to sit through. He was able to build his own mechanical army and yet the school was all about memorizing a few rules, so simplified that he didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or lie down and cry.

Anyway, nobody was supposed to be up there today. Unless he got his calendar wrong, that happened from time to time, especially with all that jet–lags coming from hunting ancient artifacts from all over the world. Sometimes it was quite hard to remember what time zone he was currently in.

Jack scratched his head while trying to decide if he should check it out. Mom never was making crash–like noises, so no cookies as a prize for defeating all these stairs. On the other hand, he was curious. And uneasy. Something deep inside him was screaming in fear, trying to crawl its way out as fast as possible. Like something just went terribly, terribly wrong up there, and he just wasn't on the right floor to tell what it was.

But what in the hell could happen? A burglar, crazy enough to do his job in the daylight? Xiaolin monks deciding to crash other parts of the house rather than just his basement? Wuya punching a wall, because Chase still didn't gave her powers back? Or dad falling on the floor with heart–attack, or maybe a stroke, or something else, twitching on the soft carpet and unable to call for help?

He started slowly climbing the stairs, trying to find the most plausible answer. Only more crazy idea came, so Jack shook his head and walked out of basement, closing the door behind himself. The automatic lock clicked, to get inside Jack would be going to need insert password on a console next to the doors. He didn't like intruders in his basement, while he was away and installed the whole setup quite long time ago. It didn't stop monks, Kimiko was able to hack her way through, but many others wasn't even near her level. Well, from time to time he was forgetting about closing it, or just left them open at purpose – putting the code every single time he moved somewhere else was just too irritating to deal with on daily basis.

The corridor leading to the basement was empty as always, so he slowly moved on, looking for some sort of a clue. Then he saw one of precious café–tables lying on the floor, precious glass from the countertop smashed and sparkling all over the expensive carpet. That definitely was a bad sign, Jack decided.

Just before he was few familiar faces and cold shivers marched down his spine.

**A/N: Hello there! **  
**Writing stories in XS world is fun, even if it is still quite a fight to get my English straight. If somebody is crazy enough to point out my mistakes - feel free to do so!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Warning! In this chapter a character failed to use a crowbar in proper way. Nothing graphic, but still, it might be slightly disturbing.**

**Chapter 2**  
**And then things are going awry some more**

Jack, as every evil boy genius should, knew a lot of people. He needed wide network of contacts to get his work done, parts for his robots weren't making themselves. He also needed to know what was going on in the more shady parts of the world, the ones that didn't show up on news channel or the internet.

Among people he knew there were many disturbing persons which he preferred to keep as far away from his home as possible. You just do not bring wanted criminals on the sleepover party.

Most of them were finding Jack irritating enough to stay away, the further away, the better. But sometimes, someone wanted something from Jack and then situation was starting to get complicated.

Right now it was far beyond that. Because in the middle of elegant living room, seated at antique creamy sofa, was no one else than Pandabubba, with a smug smile on his obese face.

"Well, well." He said, gesturing towards Jack. "Look who finally decided to showed up."

Jack stepped back, his eyes wide. On the left, next to the window he could see his father, seated in one of the armchairs, Pandabubba's goon on the each side. They looked like some sort of a clones, or copies made by Ring of the Nine Dragons, both in black suits, with black ties and sunglasses, their faces thick and hard. And they were not the only one. He could feel the presence behind his back, even if he didn't turned back.

"How they are saying it now? All your base belong to me?" The obese man laughed with glee. "Something like that, I guess."

"W-what are you doing here?" Jack swallowed. There was no reason to not believe the guy. The mansion was under the siege - if not taken over completely - and no robots to save his sorry skin. He really should have repaired them before starting playing with anything else.

"Ah, merely paying a visit to unfaithful business-partner." the huge man answered, waving his hand. The goon behind Jack had recognized the signal, because he forced the teen to walk further into the room.

The only one good thing in this whole mess was that his father looked okay, considering the situation. his strawberry blonde hair were in a mess, true, his shirt looked like something cat left on the carpet, and he was as freaked out as Jack, but in one piece.

"To think that I didn't connected the dots before...!" Pandabubba laughed aloud, too happy with himself. "I just bumped for little slice and dice if you catch my drift, and here you are!"

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked, then quickly added. "Sir!".

Because he could feel cold glaze of goons in his direction. They definitely like the 'slice and dice' stuff and Jack preferred himself in one piece.

"He don't have anything to do with all this crap!" Dad wasn't that good in recognizing mood in the air and was making a show of himself by playing a hero. At least trying too. Jack grimaced, trying to give him some sort of signal to stop doing that stupid thing right now, but he failed. "It's just a kid!"

"Aww, isn't this cute, Spicer?" Pandabubba laughed once again. Jack somehow knew that the obese Mafioso was talking to him rather than dad.

"Seriously through" Jack licked his lips nervously. "What do you want?"

"Oh, I might have changed my plans slightly, because of you..." He chuckled and Jack shivered, because that was just so bad sign. No mention, the mere sight of several bonus chin of the man, jumping up and down while he was laughing was stuff of the nightmares. "You see, I was about to teach that little foolish man a simple lesson, after he decided to play me a little in business..."

"You did what?!" Jack screamed looking at his father like he saw the man for the first time in his life. No man simply tricks people like Pandabubba. You need solid backup plan to pull thing like that off and be alive to tell the tale.

"Like you didn't tried that trick already" PandaBubba smile was smug.

"What?" This time was dad's turn to look horrified.

Well, ups, Jack through, finding this little detail in the whole mess actually funny. They never really talked and now the beans were spilled by mobster kind. Besides, he probably just saved dads live by being evil and having connections and reputation good enough to at least make the huge asshole think for a moment.

"At least I didn't brought them home!" Jack rolled his eyes. " And seriously, mister PandaBubba, he`s really, really sorry and he promises to pay you twice as much he tried to rob you off!"

"Sorry kid, but no deal." Mafioso was even more enjoying himself then moment before. "There is just so much more now to gain. Why should I go away, when I can use you?"

"What are you talking about?" Dad still didn't get it.

"Uh, okay." Jack said slowly, trying to sound as calm as he was able to. "You definitely have here some really good bargain tools, like, seriously. But can't you just agree to get some mad amount of money and then we each go our different way to never met again, or something?"

"Oh, I'm sure you can make much more money for me, than just one agreement, Spicer." Pandabubba suddenly started to looking menacing. "Consider yourself hired for life. From this day on, you're building your cute killing robots only for me."

"He`s going to build what?" Dad blinked at Pandabubba. "Are you completely mental?! There is no such a thing…"

The massive man just laughed.

"Oh, you didn't know about yours brat little hobby? What a shame!"

"You really think I`m going to do anything for you?" Jack screamed, shocked by his own bravado. But there were thing that he just couldn't give away to people like Pandabubba. To just imagine, what person like him would do with Jackbots … Making the robots fight someone on monks level was one thing. Using them in street fight with normal people would be similar to changing whole streets in one giant slaughterhouse. Jack might consider himself evil, but it was that elegant kind of evil, not murdering–everything–in–sigh evil. "Forget it!"

"Oh, but you didn't heard my arguments quite yet" gloated PandaBubba. "Boys! Show him, what we have to offer... just remember, he need his hands and head intact."

"Okay, okay!" Screamed Jack in high-pitched voice, feeling like his blood just turned into the ice. "I`ll totally work for you!"

"But dear boy, you still don't know how serious I am..."

Jack tried to weasel his way out of the room, but the goon behind him cached him by collar, and forced to stay, choking him a bit. Two other moved towards him. The whole situation seemed like some sort of really surreal, really nasty dream. Two huge guys were holding him by arms, and thing one was standing in front of him, with nasty smile and a crowbar in his hands, petting the hard metal like some sort of kitten. A crowbar.

He wasn't able to believe that the whole situation was real, even after he was hit for the first time, right in the stomach. White–hot flash of pain almost blinded him. His father was screaming something in the background, but all the sound become very, very muted, like they were coming from far away.

He didn't know, how many times he was hit, or how long it took to satisfy Mafiozo to commend his men to stop. Jack fell on the ground, grasping for air, his throat feeling completely raw – was he screaming? It was so hard to remember – body still hurting way more than after any other beating he took in his entire life. It was so hard to breathe, he was sure he's going to suffocate any moment, his nose and throat full of fluid, tasting like salt and iron.

They let him go to the loo. They actually dragged him there, and then threw him inside, almost breaking the armature with Jacks head in the process. Jack managed to drag himself to the toilet before he vomited. Only few moments after he finished he registered that his face was wet from tears, still running from his eyes.

At least they weren`t going to kill him just yet. They just wanted to cause as much pain as was possible without breaking too many bones. For Jack his rib was in the 'too much' territory, but apparently they spoke two different languages in this case.

He felt cold and couldn't stop the shivers. His face was wet from sweat and tears, his make-up was completely messed up. He looked and felt like shit.

And there was no running away, at least not in the nearest future. Pandabubba knew him well enough to keep his brutes next to Jack at all times. And there was Jack`s father too. For all stupid things the man could done...!

Dad was never the bright one. All the money of his came from grandparents and mom. Besides, he was just a simple businessman, completely not used to the harsh world outside cozy rooms and meeting in offices, where backstabbing was some sort of a sport. He didn't get the rules at all, but felt like he did. He made a mistake. Nasty one.

The only good thing – through Jack wasn't so sure about that one – was that Pandabuba needed him, needed his genius, his work, his robots, so at least there was no dying in the nearest future. For both of them, since Mafiozo needed some sort of bargaining tool against Jack too. What else to use, than a life of loved one? Nothing less would force Jack to stay in this hell.

This was going to be a long and very miserable life. At some point he will definitely end up in prison, because Pandabubba would insist on leaving some sort of signature on every metal beast he's going to create, taking from him yet another choice and forcefully turning him into mere criminal.

At least he would not steal his ideas, Jack through, feeling suddenly like laughing. There was nothing else to do but laughing or crying or doing both, or nothing at all. No difference, no more dreams about world domination, no greatness in his future. Just mere mass murdering by robots with his name on it, and life of a slave to a mobster, until the man decided that he's tired with Spicer's breathing.

And then Jack saw his father cellphone, lying forgotten on the bathroom floor. He reached and checked the battery with trembling hands, and then smiled. It was possible that not all hope was lost.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This is still slightly on the brutal side. I guess I just like to make Jack suffer. Ah well. **

**Chapter 3**  
**Not so simple art of survival**

If there was one thing that both Spicers had in common it was one bad day. And it was much worse for the younger one, to tell the truth. Dave Spicer could only watch as men who invaded his home were beating his son just to prove a point.

It was more than just awful, it was nightmare turned real, and it was all his fault. If only he actually researched Pandabubba, before agreeing to his advisors plan. If only he was intelligent enough to not risk such a thing, or even better - to fire them all to hell after even proposing something like that. If only...

Dave closed hi eyes. What had happened, that happened already. There was no turning back, no saving the situation by miracle of time travel, not even a chance to run away. But Jesus, how much he wanted to. If only to not let Jack walked out of his basement, to not join him in this misery, to not let that blasted Mafiozo notice the boy...

But he couldn't stop himself from analyzing the whole situation over and over again. How kid like Jack could know someone like Pandabubba? And why the mobster king remembered him enough to recognize immediately? And there was more. Pandabubba totally lost any sort of interest in Dave just after he saw Jack, like the boy was much more worth of his time than head of huge company, with crazy money on his side.

Jack, as intelligent as he was, was but a teenager. Yet, there was that strange thing about robots, and Mafiozo actually believed that this poor awkward teen could construct machines of destructive power. That should be a joke. In every way it sounded just mad, completely impossible. The reality however decided to ignore laws of universe and just go its own strange way.

Pandabubba's men started to turning living room in some sort of lab, or maybe a workshop. They dragged heavy wooden table from dining room and set it in the middle, setting everything else aside, not carrying if they were destroying anything in the process. Then, they brought a lot of trash inside. Metal scraps, wires, a lot of thing that Dave couldn't even name.

Him, they left mostly alone, two men standing at his sides all the time. He wasn't even supposed to be alive, at least he through so. He would actually preferred that option, especially after seeing Jack again. Kid looked back, after he entered the room for the second time. His hairs were messy, skin around his eyes redden angrily. His movements were slower than usual, much more stiff, like every single thing was painful. It probably was.

Jack stopped at the table, his red eyes already moving through various pieces of metal and equipment what was brought here, his face expressionless if not counting the fact he was biting his lip.

"You should get started." Pandabubba said with awful glee in his voice.

"With that stuff I wouldn't be able to construct power source strong enough to make whole thing working" Jack said. Or croaked. His voice was hoarse and wearied off, lacking its usual vitality.

"Oh, do not worry about that, my boy. Just do your thing. And do it fast."

"Are they going to stand there?" Jack gestured towards the goons, who were following him. "They would go in my way. It's not like I would try to run."

"You learn quickly, aren't you?" Pandabubba laughed. "Yet you're still a nasty piece of work."

Jack swallowed, but waited until the men stepped back from him. Only after that he moved towards the table and started to sorting through everything, moving one things aside, the others just dropping on the floor, ignoring the noise he was making by doing so. He looked like he knew what he was doing, not even stopping to think things through.

Jack himself couldn't really decided if he was more in pain, or just plain irritated. Funny thing, after the actual beating he took, the fear inside him seemed to just die out. He was always more scared of being hit rather than pain itself, and considering what had happened… Right now he was hurting like hell all over his body but it was nothing compared to how it felt while they were doing their thing.

Jack hoped, that he was to be left alone. Pandabubba needed him in condition good enough to work. The problem was, Jack currently had to work with shitty materials, in even more shitty make–up workshop, without many of tools that were necessary. Sure, he could improvise and walk around the technical problems, why not, but if Pandabubba wanted him to pull a wand out of his ass and do science–magic over these scraps of metal to produce fully–functional robot, then he was more insane than Wuya at her worst day. That would also mean Jack was screwed even more.

Dad was observing him from his part of living room. His face was pale and his light blue eyes were jumping all over the place. Funny through, he was probably scared even more than Jack himself. Jack at least was able to tell, what was going on and why. Dad – not so much.

Goons were still in the room, but quite far away for them, keeping their distance from the table as Pandabubba ordered, letting Jack do his work.

"So." Dave tried to start conversation. Apparently couldn't stand tension in the air, or maybe the silence was the problem for him. Maybe both. Or maybe neither, because it was his old mind that was bugging him to no end, forcing to open his mouth to make some noise just for the illusion of not hearing his own thoughts.

Nice timing for family bonding he got there, Jack through rolling his eyes. He preferred the silence. Silence was safe, in silence you don't drop important information by accident. And now every piece was important.

"What exactly are you building? Some sort of computer?"

"More like autonomic and murderous android. Androids." Jack looked up from his work, but not stopped moving through the stuff. It was mostly automatic for him anyway. His fingers were able to tell him more than eyes sometimes, finding tiny little things that were invisible in the first place.

"That sounds rather... impossible?"

"Meh." Jack shrugged and then grimaced. Shrugging was definitely bad idea. "It would be easier if somebody hadn`t beat the shit out of me!"

"Care for repeat?" One of the goons smirked from his corner.

"No please!" Jack shrieked in high pitched voice.

"Then get back to work, pest!"

So Jack did.

The machine was growing at steady pace, much slower than usual. Jack was in pain and besides he didn't wanted to work too fast. Showing his own capabilities into that fatman face would definitely be a bad idea, no mention he didn't wanted to finish anything before Xiaolin monks shows up. They would thing that was just one of his plans, or something like that. If they`re going to show up. They didn't like Jack all that much, just like the rest of the world.

Well, at least the goons left his dad alone. And the man finally saw that Jack wasn't just some hopeless case of weirdo. Through he was freaked out by the thing what Jack was building. The robot was starting to looking like something that actually could work. And kill.

"I through you stop doing that stuff after turning juicer into the blade thrower" Dave joked rather lamely.

After that incident they dragged Jack to pretty much every shrink in the close proximity, trying to find what was wrong with their kid. Nobody could tell them anything besides the fact that Jack had really high IQ and was lacking in people skills territory rather badly. More like terribly, but there was just no way that the young genius would let himself by put among his peers. It was too difficult for him to even try to communicate with kids, who weren't even able to get their dictionary straight, babbling thing in some sort parody of a language. Besides, they were interested in doing thing that didn't make sense to Jack, or they found their fun by being plain mean to anybody who was different.

Mom was trying to socialize Jack over, and over, and over again, listing his name in many activities. Languages, arts, finally sports. Jack was still completely socially awkward, but he also happened to be decent on ice and was able to speak Chinese and French before his tenth birthdays. He tried his luck with one of the Slavic language too, but after awhile he decided that the sound of it was just too weird even for his own liking.

"You were wrong" Jack just shrugged again, not looking back from whatever he was working on.

"What else I don't know about you?"

"Do you really think this is the right time for talk like that?" Jack snapped at him. "Look, all I`m trying to do is to build that freaking thing. Stop. Talking."

Because really, he didn`t saw it? That dropping even smallest information around those people would lead to nasty thing? Jesus, there should be some sort of lessons, like "Dealing with the Mafia for dummies" or something like that, because dad was completely hopeless.

Luckily, Dad finally decided to shut the hell up and Jack could let himself be absorbed in his work. Toying with machinery always was helping him in getting a hold onto himself, to put everything together after something disturbed him enough to not let him sleep. Now the work was truly a blessing, helping him forget about how he was hurting all over the body, or how awful his situation was. Just him and the machine, cold, still and obedient. No need for blueprints or doing math, or anything, because everything was already in his head. He did it so many times, creating miraculous things from mere scraps.

Several hours probably passed, while he was working, because when he tried to ease his stiff neck and back – and ouch, moving totally hurt even more if he was actually thinking about it – and looked through the window, the sun has moved far away from its previous position. He should be hungry after all that time, especially because he eat only a muesli bar for breakfast and then vomited that and probably his dinner from previous day. He wasn't hungry. That was rather bad. He was feeling slightly queasy, tired and a little bit nauseous at mere through of putting anything in his mouth. Clearly a bad sign, better to not think about it too much, Jack decided.

Dad, naturally just had to voice his own opinion about it, watching him for quite some time with worry in his eyes. Timing was definitely messed up in this family, through Jack actually learned through his own trials and errors that sometimes it was better to keep one's mouth shut tight.

Almost at the same moment he started to voicing his opinion, the goons were on him, with these creepy smiles that were saying a lot about stuff they consider being fun.

"Hey!" Jack protested, before they managed to put a hand on the man. He might be completely mad at Dad, but that does not mean that he would just let things happen. Not like that. "Leave him alone! It`s me who you need!"

"Precisely," Pandabubba`s smile was even nastier than usually. During the long hours in the mansion he managed to find his way to the bar and now was nursing glass, half–full with ice cubes sparkling among the amber fluid. "He`s more of a precaution on my side. You see, I would really hate if you for some reason turn this machine against me."

Jack felt sudden wave of cold. Not that he wasn't considering that option. Just not right now. Somewhere in the future, if the monks happened to decide to fuck it all and not show up, or show up to late, after the Mafiozo decided he's done with playing around. Sooner or later the guy would give order to transport them both… somewhere, where Jack would build machine after machine for him, nothing but a slave. Jack would wait through a few weeks, maybe more. He was good at being underdog, at playing role of weak worm. He would wait and build, and then go all Order–66 on his ass. But Pandabubba was clever enough to recognize the danger and found his own methods of countermeasure.

"Do you understand now? No matter what do you do, you can`t try to cheat on me or run away, because your poor old daddy would feel the consequences."

Jack really wanted to say that he didn't care at all. That Pandabubba could do with his father whatever he want, that they weren't even real family, just living in the same building. That as an evil genius, Jack didn't cared about the whole family stuff anyway.

But he did. No matter how awful his family was, it was still his parents. He couldn't just left them and let someone like Pandabubba murder them.

"It is not that hard to tell, what is going on in your head, boy." Mafiozo laughed and took a sip of his drink. "You see, you're not the first one bright mind, I'm playing with. I've done it for years and no matter how clever you are, you just cannot beat me in my own game. I, on the other hand…"

Padabubba waved instead of finishing his sentence. He didn't need to, it was too easy to guess without it. He was grabbed again. This time he managed to shook out the sudden shock and tried to get free, but one of them twisted his hand with ease, and then there was just no other thing Jack could do instead of hitting the floor with his knees and painful scream on his mouth. He tried to curl up before one of the goons hit him, but failed, strong kick found its way straight to his stomach. At least this time they weren't using crowbar, he trough, finding himself lying on the ground, completely unable to do anything at all. Even breathing seemed impossible, while each second was bringing new punch, or kick. The world around him was muted again, surreal in its stillness. Black dots were moving all around his line of sight like horde of black butterflies, fluttering their wings at mad pace.

Jack tried to curl up a little more, get ready for new flash of pain, but another hit never came. Instead, he heard familiar voice.

"Sorry for the long wait, partner."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**  
**Not like them**

Not every day you receive a message from your sworn enemy. Even if it was Jack Spicer, the one true primadonna of Heylin side. Self–proclaimed Evil Boy Genius loved the attention and usually was awfully annoying with all that noise he was making by trying to get all the attention he craved for.

In the first moment Kimiko was planning to trash the e-mail, but she went through the message anyway, scrolling down without second through. Then, she turned to the beginning, narrowing her eyes. It was clearly not his usual style, free of that flowery language of his.

In the first moment she thought it might be a trick, but something like that clearly would not be in Spicer's style. Jack was lacking in people skills to much to even get such an idea, no mention of actually getting the tricky message realistic enough to catch their interest. Nope, that was clearly Jack calling for help and in rather desperate way. If he wasn't in messy enough situation, he would try to solve problem himself (and probably screw it up several times during the process) not call for help.

Kimiko had bad feeling that he would not send anything to them unless he wasn't able to find any other way out. No surprise here, she through, as she read the message for the second time. After that, she checked the time the e-mail was send, and cursed. It was already several hours old. All this time the idiot was alone with Pandabubba, building Dashi knows what for the Mafioso.

She quickly found rest of the monks, walking them through message, while heading to the vault. There was no way to tell, what was awaiting them at the mansion, so she preferred to have some real power on hand. After that, they were set to go. And they did without talking all that much – she was looking serious and none of the boys was able to deal with serious Kimiko too well.

"I can't believe we're actually running to save this guy..." Raimundo shook his head, some time into their flight.

"Running?" Dojo protested. "I'm doing all the flying here!"

"Sorry, buddy" Clay patted the dragon on his back. "But this is right thing to do."

"And how we know this isn't some sort of a trick?"

"It's Jack, Rai." Kimiko rolled her eyes. "He do evil, but not that sort of evil."

"Yeah" he finally agreed. "Spicer is quite dense at times. And pulling off damsel in distress on us is definitely not his style."

"Besides!" Omi said loudly. "This is honorable thing to do! To help weaker people is our mission, as the Xiaolin Monks!"

They arrived near the mansion after a short while. It seemed that Jack wasn't lying. Next to the house there were several cars, sleek and black, and men in black suits and shades were walking around with guns in their hands.

"Holy crap, it's looks like a siege, or something." Raimundo blinked, observing the mansion from afar.

"It seems, that for once Jack told the truth." Clay murmured behind him. Because who else it would be rather than mafia guys? Never before the monks saw people at all around the mansion, and they visited several time before. That sudden crowd seemed just plain wrong.

"We should do it wisely." Rai decided. "No charging as usual, we don't know what is going on in there. And I don't like people shooting at me."

"Sounds fine by me" Kimiko nodded. "We don't do sneaky that often."

It was quite easy to just wait, until one or another of the goons was alone, and then knock him out. And after that use Tangled Web Comb, just to be sure.

Raimundo was admiring their fine job over one unconscious figure, when they heard screaming coming out of the house. One voice was belonging to a stranger, while the other one was Jack's. Only, it didn't sound like Jack at all.

"I reckon' we should screw that sneaky part of the about right now!" Clay said and then hit the wall with closed fist.

The concrete and plaster broke and crunched with ease, with great rumbling noise and launching a lot of dust into the air, opening huge passage in the wall for monks. They ran inside before all the dirt fell onto the floor. It was hard to see anything, for both sides – but the monks had their tigers instincts, while mafia goons were completely lost and blind.

Soon, their path to the origins of scream was empty, if not counting men in black suits lying here and there, unconscious.

It was Ray, who opened the doors to the room, using his wind powers to break the hinges and force them inside. The heavy wood flew inside like a piece of paper, hitting on its way another goon, crashing into the man with great force and sending him right into the wall.

Pandabubba was right in the middle of the room, just a moment before watching with glee on his face as two of his goons were kicking something on the floor. And that something was Jack. He was trying to curl, but couldn't quite manage to do it before another kick moved his frame like some sort of rag doll.

"Oh, it is you, monks." He said, his face now set up in a frown, eyes slightly wary, but not scared, like he decided to ignore his little army fate. "Excuse me, but if you are here to take the Shen Gong Wu which was gathered here, feel free. I do not wish to step in your way."

"How dare you!" Kimiko screamed, feeling as fires of fury were setting in her veins. "How dare you call us burglars! "

"Oh, if you're here to teach that boy a lesson, then I'm sorry, but I hadn't finished my business with him, nor I do not plan to do so in the nearest future." Pandabubba said quickly. "He's your enemy too, yes?"

"Make your people step back now, or they're goin' to hit the floor faster than at countryside wedding." Clay growled, moving slowly forward in very menacing and very un–Clay like manner. But with Jack just lying on the floor like that, breathing heavily and not even trying to get up out of stupid pride…

"Listen to him." Kimiko said slowly, feeling as fire was waking to life in her hand, flickering and tasting air hungrily. "And leave Jack alone right now, or all left of you would be just a burned shadow on the wall."

The fight in the next moment was quick and dirty, and probably much more brutal that it was supposed to even be, but they were angry. Really, really angry, and hurting, no mention scared as hell. As fast as Pandabubba himself hit the floor, Clay found himself near Jack, helping the redhead up in the most gently way he was able to.

Jack found out that he actually could breathe. And even smile. Through his legs weren't agreeing with him and his knees felt like they turned into cotton balls or yell–o, or something similar in all that shaking… through it wasn't only his legs that was shaking like leaves in the wind. And his vision was becoming slightly fuzzy from time to time.

Muscular cowboy managed to grab him again, before Jack felt on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Clay asked slowly, his blue eyes looking at him like Spicer was about to break in hundreds of tiny little pieces any moment now.

"I was just beaten up, do your math" Jack grimaced, because the question was truly idiotic. He felt lightheaded, almost like he was high on something, his poor brain probably unleashing every possible thing into his veins. Thanks to the mix of adrenaline and endorphins from sudden release from this nightmare Jack almost hadn't feel the pain. 'Almost' was pretty good in his book. Thanks to it he was at least able to tell, what the hell was going on, and even feel the satisfaction, when he spotted the obese Mafioso lying next to the table, among the metal scraps Jack himself thrown down there. Then he looked behind Clay.

"Woah, I see you made your own entrance!"

"Sorry 'bout that." the cowboy laughed, taking the talkativeness for a good sign.

"Whatever." Jack tried shrugging his arms. "Auch, bad idea, bad idea...!"

"So what did you actually to Pandabubba?" asked Kimiko.

"Me? I`m innocent!"

"Hard to believe..."

"Do you really think I`m stupid enough to bring someone like that home?"

"So whose fault was that? And who`s that guy in the corner?" Raimundo asked, using his thumb to point at Dave, who was just standing in the corner, probably more shocked than he even was before in his entire life.

"That would be my father. And it is his fault." Jack said, his voice flat.

"You have a father? I always through you were just spat out from some hellish pit!" The Brazilian boy smirked and eyed the man with curiosity, like some really interesting expose in museum of some sorts. He put down his Shen Gong Wu on the table, deciding that there was no reason to holding onto that sort of a weapon when every enemy was already down. Besides, seeking the similarities between the man and Evil Boy Genius was more fun. If Jack hadn't told them, he wouldn't be able to guess they were related so close. The skin color was different, since Jack was an albino, their hairs didn't agree either, but there definitely was something about shape of the nose and mouth.

"Thanks for voice of confidence" Jack grinned slightly. His teeth were slightly pink, he must have bit inside of his mouth at some point, hard enough to draw the blood. "No, seriously, thanks."

"It's okay," Kimiko smiled warmly at him. "And I'm sorry I didn't check my computer earlier…"

Exactly that moment one of the men on the ground choose to get up with gun in his hand and finger on the trigger, pointing right at the whole group, taking everybody completely by surprise. Kimiko instinctively threw the nearest item at him before he managed to pull the trigger to the full extend, hitting the man hard enough that the shot hit ceiling instead of somebody else.

But it was Jack, who grabbed the Eye of Dashi first, and pointed shining artifact straight in the direction of the goon. And something dark were dancing in his eyes, dark and cold enough to scare to the bone if you were looking into his eyes for too long.

"Jack, you don`t want to do this!" shouted Kimiko, before he even used the Shen Gong Wu.

"You`re wrong." He said coldly, raising the Eye of Dashi in the goons direction. "I really, really do."

"Jack, partner, you`re not like that!" Clay shook his head, not sure how he was supposed to act in this situation. He didn't want Spicer to do anything stupid, but he didn't want to hurt him either. And at thing point just touching the redhead would cause him pain.

"How the hell would you know that anyway," Jack grimaced. "And why I shouldn't? Those guys beat the hell out of me, and they were fucking laughing…!"

"You`re not like that Jack. Don`t fall to their level, you're better than them!" Kimiko said and somehow it was enough to bring him out of this creepy trance.

"Seriously?" Jack blinked.

"Yes, seriously. " Kimiko walked towards him and putted her hands on his palm, closing the Eye of Dashi between their fingers. "Don't try to become someone on their level. It would be very long fall."

He had conflicted look on his face, like he wasn't really believing her, probably suspecting she was lying for some reason. He let her take the Wu out if his hands anyway. He was probably too tired to pick up a fight over it. Or maybe Kimiko was right and he didn't really wanted to have blood on his hands. Or maybe it was something entirely else, something Kimiko could not identify yet.

The monks finally left, taking the mafia goons and Pandabbubba and feedback from security cameras with them, to drop everybody somewhere at police station, or something like that. They used Changing Chopsticks to collect them all, and then dropped tiny little people in shoebox. Kimiko toyed around with the tape, erasing everything that would be not that good revealed to the public eyes, including usage of the Wu and the robot. Jack was in enough trouble already and she actually felt quite awful with leaving him like that. But right now, there was just nothing to do for the monks, besides standing in the trashed living room and gape at their beaten up rival and his shell–shocked father. They needed to be alone for some time. A lot of it, because straightening all that stuff up would be definitely long, long process.

Jack would think of it as pretty funny, if he was able to feel something besides being godawful tired and in pain.

"So... what's now?" Jack`s dad was looking around all the rubble and destruction around them.

"Hospital, please?" Jack said weakly. After a day full of beating, he definitely should meet a doctor or two. Or just drop where he was standing, that was an idea too. Through falling down would be rather painful experience and he pretty much reached his limit for another year or so.

"Yeah, of course!" Dave said quickly. "I`m sorry, of course...!"

"Christ, get a hold of yourself!" Jack barked. "They didn't chop my legs off! And now go find your keys. I`m definitely not driving."

"Do you even have car license?"

"Yes, I do!" Jack rolled his eyes. "And I can drive anything else, tanks included. Not that I actually have a tank in the basement."

"Why would you need a tank?"

"Collection?" Jack smiled goofily. "You know, I already have a plane..."

"Where did you get that?"

"Build it myself. You should be able to guess that, you know."

"Yeah, I should have."

He looked at his son, currently curled on the passage seat of the car. He didn't really know this teenager. Heck, he didn`t remember when exactly Jack started to dye his hair or what was up with that make-up on his face. No mention the fact that the kid was actually familiar with people like PandaBubba. And almost murdered a man just an hour ago. And was able to build killing machines straight out of science-fiction movies with an ease.

"I guess I should be around more than I was."

"Whatever" Jack would roll his eyes, but was too tired to do so.

"Should I clear my calendar for uh... next week?"

"To do what exactly?" Jack looked at him. "Seriously, what are you planning to do? You really think that a week can repair something that even isn`t there?"

"Jack..."

"Heck, for the last few years the most parental figure in my life was ghost of an evil witch," Jack blinked. "That`s actually quite disturbing thing…"

Because, seriously. Wuya as mom? Dear Lord, what a scary image! Sure, when the woman was floating around his basement she was sort of watching over him, spewing orders to wipe his nose or go and eat something already between babbling about Wu or how stupid of him it was to lose showdown, or something entirely else. But still, definitely not a motherly figure she was.

"...Evil witch?"

"You actually send me the puzzle box in which she was imprisoned for the last fifteen hundred years." Jack smirked.

"Are you sure they didn't hit you on the head?"

"You just saw little Japanese girl throwing fireballs at mafia goons. "

He blinked. Well, he kind of did. He really need to take a week off. Or two. And actually talk to his son. He screwed up badly at the whole family issue. Really, really badly, especially for Jack.

xxx

It actually took several days before Jack could come back home; they needed to make sure he wasn`t bleeding to death internally or doing something else like that. He didn't. Nor he care all that much, because most of the time he was gloriously high from the painkillers, sleeping his way through almost all that time. All things considered, he was in pretty decent condition after experiencing such a thing. Apparently the goons knew what they were doing and oh boy, how a disturbing through it was.

Jack actually felt much worse after leaving the hospital than the first day since beating. His bruises were now full-blown, colorful and painful as hell, but he really didn't like drug himself stupid with the painkillers. For some reason stupid pills were turning his brain off and he preferred to keep his mind working, not turned into some sort of goo, which just kind of was there, between his ears, doing… things. He wasn't sure what exactly, his memories from druggie time were more than just fuzzy.

He hoped to just sleep it all over, or just start working in the basement. Work with the machines was always putting him in that sort of trance, where he didn't really feel things like hunger, so it should work just as fine with pain. Worked before. Besides, he preferred to get his Jackbots repaired as fast as possible. Living through that hell the second time was not an option.

The problem was, this time he wasn`t alone. Dad actually took the week out, just to be around and... Jack actually hadn't idea what else. That was really strange and Jack didn't know how to fell about the whole situation. His parents never were around, not since he remembered. They were always busy with something, always doing something. So was he.

Right now the balance in the family was all fucked up, and he hadn't slightest idea how he was supposed to deal with it. Hell, he hadn't slightest idea how to deal with people in the first place. Dad seemed to have the same problem, at least if the 'people' were his actual family. They ended up a lot in awkward silences, just sitting on the opposite sides of the room, looking at each other from time to time, completely lost, or bumping at each other in the corridors, not sure how to turn 'living in the same building' into 'living together' stuff. Or how the last one was even supposed to work.

It was slowly starting to looks just like before all that mess with Pandabubba. Maybe dad was not away, but still not close, and Jack was getting back to his usual way of spending days – meaning he was staying in the basement almost all the time, moving elsewhere only to get a shower or snatch something to eat. It was comfortable, it was familiar. A little bit lonely, yes, and he was definitely waking up with cream on his mouth too often to his liking, almost sure that he was imprisoned somewhere instead of being safe at home… but still. It was life how he know it.

And then, one day, not so different from every other around, he found dad circling around the corridor leading to basement, eyeing the doors downstairs. He looked uncertain, but curious and was probably as wearied of as the teen felt.

"I don't think you want to get down there." Jack said quietly, gesturing at the doors to the basement.

**A/N: Jack, you're so awfully easy to manipulate...**  
**Anyway, this is still ongoing story - through I might slow down a little, because NaNoWriMo is coming and I'm still crazy enough. (and alright, there is another xiaolin story I'm working on, so no playing dead on my side). **  
**Thank you sooo much for reviews and follows and everything! It is making me all warm on the inside!  
So, please R&R, even if only to point out my language failures. I'm trying, but sometimes I just get lost. **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello again! I must say, I'm really happy with this story - thank you guys so much for all the follows, favs and reviews!  
Also, _Winter Coma _was nice enough to send me to the editorsblog, so now I'm slowly learning what I'm supposed to do with things. I'm making notes, and all. **

**And, since the November is almost here - good luck, if anybody is doing NaNoWriMo!**

**Chapter 5**

**The basement and the oops**

Dave Spicer was irritated as hell. Or even a tiny little bit more.

The whole situation with Pandabubba was one giant wake-up call from the world. Hello, dear sir, you happened to have a family and at least one party of that family kind of need you!, universe communicated in his direction in capital letters.

He was still shaken up by the whole experience, especially by the fact that he wasn't able to do a single thing to save his own son. He was forced to stand there and watch, while kid was lying on the floor, unable to even scream properly, because the hit were coming too fast after one another.

All because of one stupid mistake.

He really hoped to do something after the whole horror came to an end. He really hoped to repair things between them, at lest get some contact with the kid. But he barely knew him. Hell, fucking Mafiozo was able to tell more about Jack than his own father. And that was even beyond sad.

Dave learned about the whole magical kung-fu deal, and the superpowered trinkets, no mention the robots he son created, only because all that shit happened in the first place. He never knew building such a thing was a possibility, and then - his own son was creating advanced machines with such an ease... it was scary, it was amazing, it was almost unthinkable. Why he didn't know that Jack was able to create such things, why he didn't even suspect that his kid managed to get that far? He just wasn't part of Jack's world, he managed only to sneak a single peek... and he wanted more. He wanted to know who his son really was, how his mind was working, how his world looked like.

The problem was - Jack wasn't letting him in.

Not that it was a surprising thing. They did not even lived next to each other all these years. Dave was too consumed in his own work, in providing for his family instead of being there for his family. There was no single reason why Jack should trust him out of the blue and let him in, forgiving for all these years.

But goddamn, Dave was even more curious that he was ashamed of his past actions!

He decided to take things slowly - even the doctors at the hospital, not really knowing about non-existent relations in the family told him to take thinks easy for a while and give Jack space if he seemed to need it. So Dave was trying to be just around, somewhere where they could see each other, but far enough to not creep the teen out of his skin. But there were a few problems with that - Jack wasn't used to him being around at all, and Jack was reading him like a book.

It was easy to tell from the way the kid tensed when saw a movement in the corner of his eye, and then forced himself to relax when he managed to identify Dave. Or from the way his red eyes were following Dave's movement, more calculating than anything else. Then the teen learned how to be... elsewhere. Just like he knew exactly what Dave was doing and decided that he wasn't interested at all. But he was throwing a bone from time to time, through Dave didn't really know if it was done deliberately or the kid just was forgetting about small things.

There were empty cups of banana pudding here and there, banana peels elsewhere. Dave found forgotten book on the sofa more than once, most often some sort of scientific titles, both in English and Chinese, of that sort he just wasn't able to understand at all with pages covered in sharp edgy scribble of Jack's Chinese letters; he was leaving comments on authors idiocy here and there, in other places there were just tiny rows of complicated calculations. At least it looks like calculations. The more Dave was staring at the notes, the less it was making sense.

Sometimes he could hear the thing his son called music - and seriously, what the hell was with that hellish noise? - and sometimes he eyed the TV shows the kid seemed to enjoy.

It was like trying to join completely alien civilization. Hopeless. Hell, Dave sometimes didn't understand what Jack was saying - on these rare occasion when they actually tried to talk about small things - because Jack was used to talk in Chinese and it was more natural to him than using English, while Dave needed to concentrate to actually understand the words. The speed Jack used while spitting sentences out was making the whole thing way to difficult. And he wasn't making thing any easier by being rather eccentric person.

Dave tried to get handle of his language skills to be actually able to communicate in decent way, but at the same time Jack was getting better - and spending less and less time in the non-underground parts of the mansion. It seemed that lying around in front of the TV just wasn't his style. Apparently obsessive working was something that just ran in the family.

Dave just could not simply walk into the basement. It was Jack's safe place and it was private, even more than his room. Through walking into teenager's room has a dangers of its own. Anyway, he couldn't even peek down there, since Jack was closing the door behind himself. And those were helluva of a doors. Last time Dave seen something like that, he was watching TRON.

He needed to ask for a permission to enter Jack's world and he wasn't sure if the teen would give him something like that.

Dave sighed. At least there was a new wall in the place of that huge hole, the magical kung-fu kids made. Through the mess was still there. And somehow it was even growing bigger, like some sort of fungus. They both were rather uninterested in keeping things clean and letting anybody inside the home didn't really looked like a good idea after all that shit.

Anyway, he wasn't all that discreet, while moving around that part of house, where the doors to the basement were, hoping that Jack would understand his reasons and act. One way, or another.

And one day, he did, stopping on his way to the underground lair and informing Dave that the basement wasn't something that he really wanted to see, all that in English with very thick very Chinese accent.

Huh, Dave through. The language switch was definitely meaning something, through he wasn't sure what exactly – willingness to communicate or just sending that other message, telling Dave that he would better stay away.

"Why not?" He asked finally, because he really needed a little more information before running away with tail between his legs.

"Well, uh..." Jack combed that red hair of his with fingers. "Suit yourself."

Dave blinked. That definitely was clear message. And a very good one. He should be happy. And he was. And probably intimidated as hell too. Because here he was, stepping straight into another world odd and impossible to understand, full of machines and science, and stuff.

The basement really wasn't something he could expect. It was... as far from the image of basements as it was possible. It was still quite dark, sure, but there was also a lot of light coming from large, flat screens. Robot parts were pretty much everywhere, even hanging out of the ceiling, no mention the large piles on the floor. They were in the several different models too. One of the pile looked rather disturbing.

"You have mechanical cheerleaders?" Dave asked, just staring at that morbid sight.

"Yeah," Jack said slowly.

"It looks kind of like pile of dead bodies, lying there like that."

"Yeah," this time kid smiled slightly, enjoying the joke.

To tell the truth, the whole place was as much disturbing as it was fascinating. It was similar to walking straight onto some sort of science fiction movie, with all that strange technology everywhere around. But that wasn't a movie, that was Jacks world. And boy, wasn't it full of saws, spikes and other things! But after the fate of the juicer that wasn't that big of a surprise.

Dave was wandering slowly around the place like it was some sort of museum of disturbing science, sometimes poking at things, sometimes walking slowly around them, like he was sure the mechanical beast was going to wake up any moment and bite him.  
The most time, he spend probably next to the vehicles. There indeed was a plane in the basement. Small, with Jack's fingerprints all over it, more edgy than usual modern planes and definitely more hi–techy. He might or might not spend a few minutes just fingerling over it, while Jack was keeping his distance and just watching him with really strange expression on his face.

"What?" Dave finally asked.

"Nothing." The kid shrugged, still with bewilderment in his eyes. "I just realized how it looks like for other people. Creepy."

Jack shuddered, Dave grimaced.

"Well, every day you learn something new about yourself. But there is something I really need to ask you…"

"What?" he blinked. "Why I have fixation with evil things, or what for all these blades are for, or how I made those missiles…"

"Missiles…?" Dave for a moment felt dumb folded. "No, that, I would prefer to not know at all. Seriously. Mom was keeping stranger stuff around and after I blew up a tree in the neighborhood lawn by accident I learned it is better to just not know some things."

"How did you blast a tree?"

"It had something to do with a bazooka. " Dave shrugged. "It looked almost like a pipe!"

Jack snorted.

"What?" He grimaced. "Seriously, I was just playing around soldiers, and then blam! Real warfare hit the ground!"

"How can you even mistook real bazooka with some random pipe?"

"They look completely alike!"

"What sort of pipes does have optical sight and a trigger?"

"Hey, I learned my lesson, do not touch random stuff that is lying around and looking innocent!" Dave protested. "Give me a break here!"

"S'okay, I guess," Jack finally shrugged. "So what do you want to ask?"

"How did you get a plane in the basement?" That, was always the most important question. And he already knew what it was, so there was one thing less for him to investigate.

"I built it here, of course."

"So… it don't fly?"

"Of course it does! I use it all the time!" Considering how strong the reaction was, he managed to offend the teenager by complete accident. But still, there was just no possible way to get functional plane in the basement, no matter how small.

"But it won't fit in the doors!" Dave protested.

"Of course it doesn't!" Jack ruffled his hair with growing frustration. "Why would it?"

"Then how…?"

Young genius just sighed heavily, then took something that looked like remote control and pushed button. The wall in front of the plane moved away quietly, like well oiled mechanism. Now, the building was lacking quite a bit fragment of wall, letting fresh air and sunshine get inside. The weather was rather nice.

"How did you…?!" He started. Then shook his head. "No, you know what? I don't want to know. I really don't!"

Jack chuckled and did his magic with remote control again. The wall was obedient like a dog and moved back on its rightful place.

"Okay… okay," Dave said slowly. "I won't ask any more. Unless the building is going to drop on our heads any given moment… it is not, right?"

"No, it is not going to fall apart!" Jack whined. "Jeez, have a little faith in me, would you?!"

"Sorry, I'm just…" Dave shook his head and smiled rather miserably. "Look, all this is quite a bit beyond me. So stupid question would happen here and there…"

"Yeah, right…" He rolled his eyes and walked away in demonstrative manner, giving clear sign that they should move on with that little tourist trip into mad–scientist lair. Dave walked after the teen like a lost puppy, afraid of making yet another mistake.

After awhile, he walked towards the walls that were occupied by bookcases, and where were lying those working tools he was at least able to name.

On one of those walls were photos in frames, just over the heavy desk that looked like it was made out of metal. The magical kung-fu kids were on several of the photos. It would be hard to not recognize them, especially that huge one in cowboy hat. There was something about these very Asian robes mixed with very Texan looks that just stayed with a guy forever and ever, like fungus. No matter how hard one would try to get rid of it, it will always come back.

The photos were pretty cute. The whole group at some sort of ice-cream joint, enjoying their sweets. Sort of. On the one photo Jack looked like he was trying really hard to tell something to the tiny one, while the dragon-like creature creeped from under the cowboys hat and were wolfing at ice-creams with a long spoon, while Jack wasn't looking. On the other photo Jack was trying to catch the creature (and climb on the cowboy to do so) while the tiny one was finishing the dessert looking very happy about himself. On the next one Jack looked a little bit mad and a little bit embarrassed, while the Japanese girl and the tanned boy were hugging him from both sides.

Then, there was photo in which he could see his son smiling brightly, while next to him something was floating.

"This is that witch, yes?" he asked.

"In the ghost form" Jack smiled slightly at the picture, then pointed another on. "And that how she looks like in actual body. She went crazy with the camera. I think she actually stole the thing the other day or so."

He looked at beauty, yet strange redhead, smiling mischievously from the picture. Eyes of the strange woman were green and piercing, the tattoos on the cheeks were giving her slightly menacing look, but most of all, she was really, really feminine.

Next to her was other picture. That one looked like taken in secret and from afar, the image itself slightly blurry. On the picture was definitely a man in some sort of an golden and black armor, with long, ivory hair. And the photo actually wasn't only one of this guy, every one also taken without him actually knowing about it, or so it seems.

"And who is this?" he asked.

And then world swirled around once more, because Jack blushed heavily and then pretty much panicked.

Oh crap.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: hello again! I managed to reach 50k words early (so my NaNo is sort of finished already. But not really, since the editing still awaits...)^^  
Thanks for all the follows and reviews, I'm always glad to receive any kind of reaction towards my work. I must admit, this story is really far from my usual comfort zone. English is still not my first language, so if somebody spot something weird - do tell! I don't bite. **

**Chapter 6**  
**Miscommunications**

The problem wasn`t that his son accidentally came out to him. After all the thing that happened in the past few day it wasn't really a shocker. Not like the machines, the ancient witch and magical kung-fu kids. No, the problem was the guy after whom his son was miserably mooning about.

Chase Young was an asshole. Really. From somebody who was around for the last one and a half millennium he expected at least... well, something. But no, asshole he was, threatening everything around him like dirt, using people like tools when he felt like it, while acting like he was following a way of honorable warrior. Well, it was possibility that what people were calling an honor changed quite a bit through the centuries, but still!

The only thing Jack could receive from that sort of man was pain and the kid got enough of that already. For Christ sake, Jack was beaten up twice and all Dave could do was just stand there and watch. Some father he was.

It probably was really bad time for that sort of talk, especially because things between them were rather tender and they only started to knowing each other. There was just no reason why Jack should trust him, nothing at all to make him consider his father words. Besides, teenagers tended to know better and only learning through failing at things they wanted to achieve for some crazy reason. The problem with Jack was the boy just won't recognize his failure at all, being in love with guy he idolized for years.

"Jack, I don't think that running after Chase is such a good idea…" Dave started carefully voicing his opinion anyway. He somehow managed to make the kid to talk to him all about Chase – it was the most awkward moment in his entire life – and then he googled the rest of required information. Hooray for the internet, there indeed was everything.

"You think? Funny. Besides, it is my business"

"Jack, I just don't want to see you get hurt..." That was probably the worst thing to say ever. Absolute failure, because he was trying to speak with his heart, instead of using his brain. It was truly amazing, how fast he was able to drop everything that made him successful in business. It was a little more than a single week, since he decided to retire. And, oh God, how awfully bad he was at thing being retired stuff!

"Nice timing you got there, pops." Jack rolled his eyes. "You should really through about it before you started to fucking around Pandabuba!"

"I didn't know it then..."

"Jesus, dad! Should I spell it out for you or something? What part of 'mob overlord'' is so hard to understand?!" The kid switched to Chinese when he started raising his voice. He probably not even noticed it, since that language was so natural to him.

"You know exactly what I mean!"

"I don't give a shit! Fuck, dad, I was on my own all that time and now you suddenly decided to play nice?! And I'm supposed to be ok with that?"

"Son…" Dave tried again, carefully, fighting to keep calm, despite his own desire to scream his lungs out. Jack wasn't even trying to listen to him, not even letting him to get to the end of sentence.

"No, not even try that shit with me! You don't know nothing about me and my life, so stop trying to tell me what to do!" Now words were spitted out so fast it was even hard to understand them or separate from each other. But it was easy to recognize what they were about. "Just go back to your own life and let me back to mine."

And then Jack slammed the doors right in his face.

Xxx

When Jack felt that it was save to scream out his frustration, he just did so. Who his dad just through he was?! After all that time he decided to play nice and reasonable parent, because he almost get Jack killed and now just felt guilty. Hell if Jack would just let him set conscience in peace just like that. Hell, If he's going to agree with anything, dad said. And he never ever met Chase, so how could he try to voice his stupid opinion anyway?

Still moaning with frustrations and mumbling curses under his nose, Jack decided to deal with his anger, but he was too furious to work it out on the machines - he would totally trash them - and murdering hundreds of virtual zombies didn't do the trick.

He surfed for a little while on the internet, then decided to just register an account at some random MMORPG game and go on virtual killing-spree. Murdering other players and reading their frustrated reactions was always quite fun.

He made it a bad day for few people and was starting to having fun, when someone decided to send him message. And then another one and another.

And then that someone knew who he was, because, well, first name basis.

- Hi, Jack. - said the message. - Are you okay?

He blinked, than asked who the hell was on the other side and why he was calling him Jack.

- Your character name is 'ChaseYoungRules', idiot. Is not that hard to guess. -

He blinked, dumbfolded. Just what in the hell?

How low were the chances to bump at someone from the conflict over Shen Gong Wu in the random game? And who he managed to meet anyway?

Jack scratched his head. Most people he knew, were not in that sort of fun. With Pandabubba in the hands of whoever got him, there was no way the word could wander among the Heylin side, so, there was only one person, who would play a game, using female character. Unless there was something about Raimundo he really, really didn't want to know.

"Kimiko?" he asked, in the same time tapping the name on the keyboard.

- Who else? -

"Why are you talking to me exactly?"

- Last time I saw you, it was not that great. Call me curious. -

"Aw, you are worried about me, baby!"

- Don't read too much into it. Care to join me on the raid? -

"Are you asking me out, baby?"

- If slashing virtual monsters is your definition of a date, then there is something really wrong with you, Jack. And turn on your mic, it would be hard to play other way -

"Hey, don't crush my hopes like that!" Jack protested while switching the microphone on. He hoped it was really Kimiko and not some sort of creep.

"You're lucky that nothing else actually was crushed. Or was it...?" Now he could hear her and it was indeed the Dragon of fire. And she even sound like she was a little bit worried!

"No sweat, I'm ok."

"And your dad? Is he alright with all of this?"

"Do we really need to talk about it?"

"Were you two fighting?" Kimiko asked with suspicion in her voice.

Crap, that girl was reading him like a book. But he was actually flirting with her and it seemed that she was flirting back. A little. Sort of.

"We had our disagreement?"

"It means that you are at each other throat, right?" the girl sighed.

"I don't really talk about it? Look, just lets go with the raid, and then I'm going back to PK people until they ban me."

"Was it about Wu?"

"Not really. But I had to tell him thing or two."

"He don't like you on the evil side?"

"My grandma was on the evil side."

"Alright, officially, wow."

Then, it was just small talk, retelling of the bazooka story and killing some monsters.

His day become a little bit better, because for the first time he spend time with that girl and it was quite a nice time, even if they were both nerding out. Alright, it was probably the first time he spend a day with a girl, if you are not counting Ashley. But he didn't even like Ashley. And cats.

Jack lay on his desk, ignoring the not so nice information about his account being banned and through about everything that had happens. His dad was sure that Jack was gay, at least for Chase Young. He himself wasn't so sure. But he never even tried to thing about the man in that way. And he kind of liked Kimiko. How one check if he's gay?

Jack felt lost. He knew, that trying to google it would lead to many bad things that he wouldn't be able to unseen, so he did not ever tried.

"Like I don't have more problems already" he mumbled.

Discussing the whole issue with anybody else clearly wasn't an option. No way he's going to talk to dad anytime soon about anything at all after the shit he pulled off. And no way he's asking anybody on the Heylin side either, everyone was a freaking gossiper on their side. And asking the monks was even worse idea, because, seriously!

Jack slammed his head onto the desk top several times, but answer did not come.

"I hate my life..." he whined, lying on the desk. He spend quite some time like that, managed to get banned from two other games, then finally decided to do some work. His robots would turn into red piles of rust if he keep the lazy attitude any longer.

It was a little bit hard to tell, how much time he spend down there, but he ran out of food and creeping up just to use the toilet only at night was getting really irritating.

He hoped that dad managed to get bored with his retirement and found himself something to do instead of playing good father. Just when he was about to leave, someone knocked on his doors and he could hear oh so familiar voice coming from the other side.

xxx

Great, Dave through. Just way to go, he should receive the Dad of the Year Award. He banged at the doors with his head.

How in the hell everything in his life went in such a mess in that short period of time?

Through it wasn't really short. He really did screwed up right at the start, so sure that what his family really needed was more money instead of well... being family. That sort of family what eat a meal together at least once a week, talk about stupid little things, live in the same building.

His own mother was better at parenting and better as a role model than him, even with her strange 'evil' fixation, which Jack adapted as his own when he started modifying machines around the house. But then she died and Jack already creeped out enough nannies that everyone else in the business knew that Spicer family was just a bad place and even the most desperate ones chose not to work for them just after hearing the family name.

They tried to integrate Jack with the other kids, but school just wasn't working for him. He knew too much to not be bored out of his skin during lessons and then he knew way to much to be able to communicate with other kids, no mention him being an albino. Jack was just to different. After a lot of changing one school to another and then the next one, they finally decided to get Jack homeschooled. It worked, at least they were sure it did, so they just let the boy be and do whatever he want.

He really should be able to see more. It seemed now it was way to late. He couldn't just rebuild something that wasn't there in the first place. And the family bond between them was clearly non-existing.

"Fuck," he mumbled, banging his head at the door yet again.

And then he almost jumped out of his skin, because he heard unfamiliar voice just behind him.

"And who are you? And why are you banging on the doors with your head?"

He turned around slowly.

The woman who asked the question was definitely that Wuya witch what Jack told him about. She was standing right behind him, with her hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised, with crooked smirk on her full, red lips.

"I happened to be his father" Dave decided to tell the truth.

"Funny" Wuya smirked even more, circling slowly around him. "I never saw you around before"

"I was away."

"I can see that," Wuya rolled her eyes. Then moved towards the door and knocked on them with annoyance clearly visible on her face.

"Open the door before I make my own way in," she ordered.

"I don't want to see you old hag. Go away!" Well, at least it was good to see that Dave wasn't the only one in the disgrace here.

But Wuya completely ignored the teenager.

"I said, open the doors. Now."

And Jack did, for some reason.

Wuya winkled her nose, looking at Jack from top to bottom.

"Well, you're a mess." She said after a moment. "Go to the bathroom and wash your face. And brush your hair I can see knots from where I'm standing."

And Jack did just that. Dave blinked at the sight. Sure, the teenager was mumbling something under his nose, but at the same time he was doing as the woman told him.

"And you," Wuya turned to Dave. "Clean the floors, for crying out loud! The whole place is a mess!"

"Er... what?"

"Do you even know how uncomfortable is to walking around barefoot when the debris and other trash is everywhere around?" Wuya grimaced.

"Should I bring you slippers?"

"No" she cut him out. "You shall clean this place. Now."

And so he did, not understanding how his life changed so much in such a short period of time.


End file.
